The Cabal
by Darman Sejuk
Summary: Humanity is more then they appear. Add M rating for strong language in later chapters. Reviews welcome.
1. Time Line

The Cabal

By Darman Sejuk

Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

Time Line

2054- After years of silence the Order 'The Seers of the Throne' waged a war across the Earth to destroy all other orders in place of their own.

2060-After 6 long years the five orders that comprise the Coalition of the Mage finally defeated the Seers of the Throne. The war while still kept secret from the sleeps of the world still cost the lives of many mages of all the orders.

2062-As the effects of what was to become the greatest mage war in history began to fade several cabals of mages composed of a mix of orders began to form a more organized alliance of mages built upon the trust the orders gained from working together in the war. They came to call it The Coalition of Mages.

2067-With the continued growth of the Coalition, the mages affiliated with the Free Council apply their knowledge towards advancing humanities space exploration programs. with the possibility of increased resources from the different planets in the solar system the other orders begin funding the programs.

2069-Armstrong Outpost at Shackleton Crater is formally founded as the first human settlement on Luna, on the 100th anniversary of the first lunar landing. With the first colony of humanity developing the call for colonists grew exponentially.

2075-As the colonies on Luna grew and became self sustaining humanity turned its eyes towards The Red planet. Plans are delayed for automated ships to deploy and terraform the planet to allow for easier colonization.

2103-After several decades the process of transforming the red planet into a world that could allow humanity to live on the surface is completed and the first colony is founded.

2140-an incident with a few remnants of the Seers of the Throne Order forced the Coalition to fabricate a false identity as an intelligence agency that serves as the research and investigation arms of the Systems Alliance.

2148-A facility hidden in the wastes of the Promethei Planum is discovered. Many of the orders members travel to the location to learn the secrets of the ancient outpost. Thanks to the skills of the Free Council order the information is quickly translated and the identification of a then unknown element was discovered. It was called "Element Zero".

2149-Complete translation of the 'Prothean Archive' was not possible when several data storage systems failed from old age. Though the rest of humanity doesn't realize it, the Technical specialists of the Free Council manage to transcribe much of the data before being lost. One of the barely recovered records stated that their race was hunted down and exterminated by a great enemy. With the warning about a possible threat existing somewhere in the galaxy the Systems Alliance uses the knowledge to find and activate a massive device trapped in ice just outside the orbit of Pluto.

2150-While the systems Alliance began the process of building a massive fleet to combat the great threat that was forewarned in the Archive the five great orders begin the plan to secretly infiltrate and enhance the System Alliance to improve the abilities of the sleepers. As an entire generation of mages join the Alliance from soldier to civilian contractor the general abilities begin to grow.

2151-The Systems Alliance begins plans for the construction of a massive station that would house the combined government of the Earths nations along with the colonies currently founded and future ones. The Collation of Mage orders see this as an opportunity to create the biggest Sanctum for all mages.

2156-Arcturus Station is completed and made the capital of the Systems Alliance and the secret prime Sanctum of the Coalition of Mages.

2157-Members of the Coalition stationed on the colony of Shanxi report an attack by an unknown force when exploring beyond the Shanxi Relay. Knowing that the Coalition couldn't keep this secret they quickly alerted the Systems Alliance of the development. Despite the numerical superiority of the attacking aliens the collection of cabals that called Shanxi home and the many mages that served as the local fleet and ground forces used their arcane abilities to out maneuver and survive conflicts between the two forces for several months before the Citadel Council thanks to the STG took notice that the Turians we're deploying forces beyond the space of the citadel and any ships that came back were severely damaged.

2158-NOW


	2. First Meetings

The Cabal

By Darman Sejuk

Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

First Meetings

\- Arcturus Station-Mages council chambers-

"SILENCE!"

With that one word the collection mages that compromised the Coalition of Mages' leading council. The debate that had been holding up the council for several hours now was both simple and vitally important: what to do about the invaders from beyond the relay.

From a far corner of the chamber a question that had been on the minds of all the collected mages was voiced, "Could these invaders be the connected the Great Enemy?"

In response to the question another mage stood up to be noticed by the assembly. "As far as we can tell these beings are not a part of the Great Enemy." With that most of the mages let out a collective sigh. "Instead from what information has been procured from their computer it would seem that this species is known for attacking younger races and enslaving them under the guise of protecting the greater good. If what we have gleaned is correct then it is likely that the other major races don't know about the events that are transpiring on Shanxi. If not for the quick thinking of the Guardian of the Veil mages stationed on Shanxi then these Turians would most likely know all they need to mount an assault on the entire Systems Alliance."

At their mention the resident members of the Guardian of the Veil beamed with pride that the actions of their order were successful.

"As it is, intercepted communications from between the ground forces and the ships in orbit indicate that they believe Shanxi is our home world. This includes believing that the peace keeping force that was stationed nearby was all that represented our fleet."

A member of the Silver Ladder order brought a new wrinkle to the attention of the Council that made everyone worry. "Would these other races step in if we brought out whole fleet to bare?"

As a greater debate over the need to worry about being outnumbered a Free council member stood up drawing the attention of the members. "We believe that if the Asari learn about our conflict with the Turians they will send a negotiator to try and end the war." When he finished the council was preparing to start a new debate about who to send to meet the Asari representative when another Free Council and Mysterium mage stood up together.

That fact alone was enough to grab the attention of everyone in the room. These two mages were cloaked in the uniform of the Archives, a special cabal that was dedicated to preserving and recovering any lost information from the event that had come to be known as the 'Fall of the Orders'. The Free council member motioned for the Mysterium member to speak. "We believe that the Asari have knowledge of us already.". That one sentence stopped everything. For them, the idea that an alien race might know of the Mages was a terror that hadn't been conceived when there was no surviving record of any encounter thus far.

Acting quickly to stem the outrage that was surly building with that knowledge the speaker of the meeting stated loudly, "I'll inform the Prime Minister of this possibility and ordering one of our stealth frigates to pass through the relay and notify us when an Asari ship arrives. When they come I want us prepared for anything."

* * *

-Citadel Station-Council Chambers-

"What do you mean you refuse to answer my questions!" Snarled the normally calm and peaceful Matriarch of the Asari, Councilor Tevos. "You have spent the last 2 months telling us that you didn't have any information as to why a portion of your fleet has disappeared, and know you have the gall to just now say that your REFUSE to tell us!"

"Simple. This is still a matter being handled by our peacekeeping force. As per the Citadel charter, ahem" Councilor Sparatus, the representative of the Turian Hierarchy cleared his throat as he lifted his arm and activated him Omni-tool "Article 14 section 5 sub-section 7 of the Citadel Charter states that any matters deemed as a possible threat will be handled by the prevailing species that serves as the military arm of the Citadel Council until the threat has been neutralized for the safety of the galaxy." He read off before lifting his eyes from the screen to stare at the Asari member of the council for a second with a smirk before continuing with. "In short it means that until the matter is handled, it is a matter that will be dealt with by the Turians and will not be interfered with by the other species of the Citadel."

Councilor Tevos stood there with a look on her face that was a cross between murderous rage and disbelief. After a moment she took a deep breath before saying, "We both know that law only pertains to preventing civilian interference in a military matter. Anything that requires the deployment of the Turian fleet is a concern of the 'Entire' Citadel Council. Not for you to hide your actions."

Watching the argument was the Councilor of the Salarian Union, Councilor Valern. While the Asari and Turian councilor continued to squabble with each other he opened his Omni-tool with a flick of his wrist before stating, "Would it have something to do with attacking a species and invading their home world?" Even for a Salarian the smug look was clearly evident on his face at the conflicting expressions on his councilor counterparts.

Tevos was the first to respond. "THEY DID WHAT!" she practically screeched while turning from the calm Salarian to the Turian that was too busy recoiling from the high pitch of the Asari to respond.

As Sparatus shook his head to clear the last of the residual effects from the noise from his head he spied a look at the source just before being launched up into the air by a biotic field.

The numerous guards situated around the chamber where the meeting was being held was caught be surprise when one of the three councilors they were assigned to protect was attacked and threatened by one of the other councilors. The differing species that comprised the guards were the same ones that were represented on the council which caused some chaos when their first instinct was to protect their own councilor. The Salarian guards were mainly left stunned while watching their Turian and Asari counterparts attack each other attempting to rush to the support of their respective charge.

Normally such a commotion would draw the attention of anybody nearby but the councilors of the Citadel for were essentially oblivious to anything other than their current if heated conversation. As Valern watched from the side, as Tevos spun the Turian councilor upside down her boitics started to flare to increasing levels that blinded any that looked directly at her. After a few moment where even Valern started to worry about an explosion the light began to fade as Councilor Tevos of the Asari Republic began to reign in her boitics. While she was venting light out of every pore of her body councilor Sparatus had been floating right in front of her with a clear view at the rather obvious indication as to how close he had pushed her towards losing the fabled control that the Matriarchs of the Asari held.

After a moment where Tevos looked at Sparatus with a look that suggested that she wanted to reduce his existence to his baser elements in the most painful way possible, she dropped him. Without even checking to see if he had been harmed from the fall she started towards the entrance of the chambers. As she passed the conflict that had erupted between the guards she gave a comment that startled everyone in the room, "children, their all children!". Seeing that their charge was safe the Turian guards stopped fighting and returned to their station around the chambers. When Sparatus managed to return to his feet he tossed a question across the echoing chamber that could be heard in every corner and by every person there. "Where are you going?".

As Tevos reached the elevators that lead to the presidium ring of the citadel and by extension her peoples embassy she turned around to give the Turian a piercing reply, "To fix this mess you started and you better hope that they don't want your head on a platter or I might just oblige them. Also when this is resolved we'll be talking about the other 'client' races that you have." Before walking into the elevator and descending the tower.

As the atmosphere in the council chambers cooled off Sparatus turned to confront the Salarian that started the incident when he realized that he was alone on the council stand.

* * *

-Citadel Station-Councilor Tevos' private office-

After explaining the reason for the call to the Council of Matriarchs on Thessia, and after being ask some very unusual questions like 'has it been confirmed that they are called human?' or 'Do you have samples of their speech?'. Tevos waited for the response on the vote of how to handle this latest situation that the Turians had instigated once again. As she waited, she pulled up the information that Valern had transferred over to her concerning not only the call she was waiting for but also the future of a newly space faring race that gained the ire of the Citadels peacekeepers explored their curiosity. She stopped for a moment to reaffirm what she had know about the Turians role in the galaxy that she had learned all too well when she joined the Council all those years ago, that they are nothing more than bullies on a short leash.

As she read the information she began to worry, even though this race was young they managed to fight off several assaults by the Turians on the ground calling for more forces but also cost considerable number of resources in the form of the famed fleet. With that knowledge Tevos understood why the Turians were so reluctant to spread the news. this species managed to poke a hole in the Turians pride, something that hadn't happened since the Krogan Rebellions. the information on the biology was more startling with how species looked compared to the Asari, if not for the different skin pigments and the tufts of fur in place of a crest you could mistake them for Asari.

After a few minutes her terminal started to pulse with a tone that indicated that the call was over a secured line that connected directly to the Matriarchs. 'Huh, that was fast' bounced around in her mind as she answered the call. When she accepted the call she was surprised to find that only one of the Matriarch was present on the other end of the call. Before Tevos could open her mouth Matriarch Lidanya if her memory was correct spoke. "Its decided that the Asari will aid the Humans."

That one sentence was enough to stun Tevos. For the Matriarchs the make a decision this quickly was unprecedented, to make that decision was just downright strange. Knowing that the next question could make the difference with that decision Tevos voiced it, "Who are you sending?'.

Lidanya gave a small smile confirming that it was good that she wanted to know other than the general Asari who would just accept it without question. "Matriarch Benezia.". Those two words caused a wave of relief to pass over Tevos, Benezia was known as the best for contacting warring families and finding a common ground between the different groups. While going over the possibility of Matriarch Benezia solving the problem in her mind she almost missed the last thing Lidanya said before ending the call. ""Order the Turians to vacate the System."

* * *

-Citadel Station-Councilor Sparatus' office-

"Primarch. They are not happy." Was all that needed saying by Councilor Sparatus to the leader of the Turian Hierarchy.

Abrudas Sarcuras the Primarch of the Turian Hierarchy just gave a tired sigh before replying. "Well of course they're not happy. It's never a concern of the Asari or the Salarians when we are able to bring the younger races under heel quick. Usually just the excuse that we encountered a hostile race that needed to be reeducated was enough after we sanctioned anyone that could have known the truth of our first encounters."

Sparatus looked uneasy at the prospect of the fact that it might come out that almost all of the client races under their rule were conquered for no real reason other than territory and resources, it's what always made him nervous about the Batarians. "You don't understand, Tevos almost lost control when she found out. It was as if we has attacked an Asari colony and not some no name species beyond a relay. I've already received and order from the Asari that we are too clear out our forces, leave any and all prisoners behind and wait for an envoy their sending to defuse the situation. From what I hear Matriarch Benezia is one of their best."

After hearing the name of the Asari, Abrudas suddenly had a gleam in his eye that made the instinctive parts of Sparatus' mind scream about running and finding a good tree to hide in. After a deep chuckle that reaffirmed the desire to run in his mind the Primarch gave one last comment before ending the call. "We'll withdraw our troops, but I'm sure that after the meeting the Asari will be on our side of the encounter."

When several seconds had passed after the call had ended Sparatus uttered a well used phrase by all Turians "My the Spirits Protect Us.".

* * *

-Citadel Station-Councilor Valern's office-

"The Asari didn't know, just as you predicted." councilor Valern spoke while talking with the Dalatrass that had originally given him the information and the order to release the small lead if the subject was brought up.

The Dalatrass on the other end of the line looked thoughtful for a moment before replying with, "We will need to obtain more samples. The Turians don't seem to understand how the Humans are able to fight the way they are even with the helmet footage that shows the demise of their soldiers. We need to watch them, usually a species has already been ground down and incorporated into the Turian Hierarchy before we find out about it. For this race to keep going after this long could be a sign that the Turians are losing their edge and need to be replaced. Maybe this new species once they've grown a bit. Asari wanting exclusive access to Humans is troubling, why send Matriarch Benezia? What do they know?"

Valern was left gasping at what the Dalatrass so blatantly voiced as the call ended. As he sat down at his desk his mind started to formulate hot the galaxy would grow with the incorporation of this new species.

-comments-

Here is chapter two of the story. 'The Cabal' will primarily be over the first contact of the humans and mages with the outside galaxy. I might write a story with Shepard latter on.

I don't have much experience with the Werewolf or Vampire aspects of the World of Darkness game so I don't know if I'm going to include them later.

I will also be writing codex Entries to help fleash out the 'The Cabal' universe. They will be posted in their own story so check my page for the link. I'll update those when I come up with them so their update might be faster or slower than the update for the main story.

If anyone wants their own OC character in the story then write up a profile on them and send it to me. I'll try to work it in.


	3. Suprise Contact

The Cabal

By Darman Sejuk

Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s). Please don't sue me.

Surprising Meetings

-Asari diplomatic frigate "Athame's Light"-FTL Transit to Relay 314-

'Could this be it?' was one of the many thoughts traveling through the mind of Matriarch Benezia as she watched the stars travel by the view port of her cabin aboard the diplomatic vessel selected for the mission. Even though travel between the Mass Relays was instantaneous, the travel from the end of one relay pair to another was made using conventional FTL systems. Even having the most advanced systems of the space faring species still meant that they were limited at how fast their ships could travel.

As she pondered if the race she was about to be meet was anything like the stories of old, she glanced down at the old tome resting in her lap. Normally this tome would be housed in the archives on the Asari home world of Thessia, under the strictest of guard to protect it from any danger. After the Asari had traveled to the stars and met other species, they began to lose hope as the centuries passed by with no sight of the first species to make contact with them.

When the message from Councilor Tevos arrived containing the information about the species that the Turians were in conflict with the entirety of the Matriarchy almost collapsed in shock. After so long they had finally found their old allies, after they had reviewed how Tevos had reacted to finding out what was happening they knew without a doubt that this was them.

Matriarch Benezia was brought out of her trip down memory lane when she noticed that her ship had dropped out of FTL and was on approach towards the relay that would finally answer the questions that had been haunting the Asari people for so long.

As Matriarch Benezia contemplated the possibility that they may have finally found their long lost half while staring out the viewport of her quarter. She noticed that the normally constant blue of the field that reflected the energy being released by the Mass Effect core to all for FTL was starting to diminish.

As Benezia stood while holding the Tome of the Mages to her chest as if was the most important thing to her people, which it is, started to head for the door to her quarters when the alarm started to sound. Fearing the worst she began to run towards the bridge when the ship careened sharply to the side causing her to lose her footing. The last thing Benezia saw before the bulkhead stopped her tumble was her most loyal Apprentice Shiala running towards her and hoping that she hadn't dropped the Tome.

* * *

-Turian Patrol frigate "Verrikan"-holding point off relay 314-

Jaeus Kerictus was proud to server his government. It was one of the many reasons that he and several others from his platoon joined BlackWatch. It wasn't just the pay or the prestige that came with the position. It was the ability to take missions that is only second to the Spectres in action.

When Jaeus was ordered to take one of his people frigates out and frame the Humans for the destruction of the Asari's diplomatic party he almost asked if it was his birthday. /What most people in the galaxy, including the Turian Hierarchy didn't know was that only the most brutal and xenophobic members of their military are asked to join.

He hated the fact that the Hierarchy was being forced to back off from a race that defied the long standing rule of the Council and opened a Relay without permission. It didn't matter if this was a new species that just attained space travel. The fact that this upstart species has been able to hold off the forces of the Turian Hierarchy for so long still baffled him.

As he thought about how this upstart species he reached up to the series of new scars that was the result of the strange abilities that these humans used. What he saw shouldn't have been possible, common soldiers that could launch lightning and fire from their hands at the surprised soldiers was one of the more visually surprising attacks of the defenders.

He was so lost in his musings about the abilities of the defenders that he almost missed the reason he was out in space instead of hunting down the new species. Off the bow of his hip was the Asari ambassadorial ship that carried the representative of the Citadel Council. He was in luck, even the Asari ships as advanced as they are have to dissipate the blue shifted energy from being in FTL making the ship momentarily blind to everything around it. It was fortunate, while this energy made it impossible for the ship to see anything around it, it made even more possible to detect and target the ship.

He knew that destroying the Asari ship would bring the entire Council behind the Turians instead of having them divided amongst each other over this conflict. Over the months of the conflict only a few of the humans' ships had been destroyed and only with overwhelming firepower. Those ships had been quickly striped of materials to learn how their ships were so powerful. His frigate was loaded with the main gun salvaged from one of the ships destroyed. When the STG snooped around to find the ship they would be able to tell that the Asari was destroyed by the humans and that they didn't want peace.

As he watched the power feed into the salvaged cannon on his ship he knew that this would be a monumental moment for the Turian Hierarchy. When his console ping informing him that the cannon was fully charged, he fired, and that was the last thing he did.

-Alliance Stealth Frigate "New Delhi"-shadowing modified Turian Frigate-

"What are they doing out here?" Was the first thing that Captain Eisennhorn said after staring at the Turian frigate that didn't even know was under the guns of a Systems Alliance Stealth Frigate. After the first battle in space against the Turians the local technicians salvaged any equipment that they could find and cracked the language barrier surprisingly quickly. With access to their languages the 'codex' that was on basically every database on the ships painted a rather interesting picture. It showed that the Turians were one of three races that govern a massive coalition of races. What was more important was that the codex carried the laws of the government and if it was interpreted correctly showed that the Turians were in the wrong in attacking a new species that had no knowledge of the laws in place for activating the Mass Relays.

While the data on the other species was interesting, the data on the race called Asari captured the eye of quite a few people. A species that looked so close to human woman was quite a shock. What is more concerning is that the mages that comprise the Archives believe that the Asari had previous contact with humanity in its past. While quite a few scoffed at this there was some indirect evidence recovered that dated back to the time of Atlantis that suggested that humans were allied with a different species not of Earth.

What most of the alliance didn't know was that most of the crews of the ships in the fleet were Mages. With so many mages in place they could perform miracles in everything from technology to finding new areas for people to explore. With the discovery of the Prothean archive on mars the Free Council mages almost went feral over the prospect of learning a new science that could revolutionize the lives f the human race. One of the things that was first noticed was the energy that was given off by a ship when it was in FTL. After a few experiments it was discovered that they could track ships through FTL. During the beginning of the conflict they had been able to determine both the location and size of the ships that were approaching their space before they became a threat. This ability has cost the Turians quite a bit as they couldn't figure out how the humans were finding them so quickly.

Now that he thought about it the fact that a Turian ship that was using the main cannon off a human ship was stationed near where they has calculated the Asari diplomat would arrive was even more unusual. From the beginning of the conflict the Turians had fallowed strict patterns and formation on both the ground and in space, having a single ship out here that was for all intense and purpose was trying to hide its signature was definitely odd.

"Lieutenant, time until the Asari ship reverts to sub-light speeds?" Captain Eisennhorn asked his first lieutenant who was stationed at the sensors station on the bridge.

"1 minutes 13 seconds, Sir." came the clipped response from lieutenant Steven Hackett.

After a minute Captain Eisennhorn asked "Is the Turian ship doing anything else?"

"Sir it looks like the Turian ship is starting to charge its weapons." came the reply.

With a shocked look Eisennhorn asked, "Have they detected us?!"

"No, Sir. It looks like their targeting where the Asari are going to come out of FTL." Replied Lieutenant Hackett with a concerned back at the Captain.

"Charge weapons! If the Turians are going to attack the Asari I was us ready to assist them."

Right after the Captain finished his order a flash of blue appeared a short distance away announcing the arrival of the Asari vessel. Almost instantly the Turian ship fired its salvaged cannon.

With a shocked silence the bridge crew watched as the Turian ship fired on the Asari without a moment hesitation. "Stop the Turians NOW?"

I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update the story. My plot bunny got loose so it took a while to find it. I also think this and the second codex entry should count as my Christmas gift to my readers. If you are of a different faith then I don't mean to be disrespectful. Also I will be tweaking the first chapter and the time line to better fill out the background so keep an eye out for those. If you use the Fanfiction reader for smart phones then you need to delete the old story and download it anew to load the new content.

Surprisingly I finished this chapter just in time for X-mass so consider this my gift to the readers.


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